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The Israeli army killed at least seven Palestinians and wounded dozens of others as the Jewish state deployed armed drones and ground troops in a major operation in the occupied West Bank.
The overnight attack on a Palestinian refugee camp in Jenin is the latest escalation in violence that has led to near-daily Israeli attacks in the region that have killed more than 100 people this year.
Israeli officials said the raid was launched as part of a “wider counter-terrorism effort” targeting the “Joint Operational Command Center” of the Jenin Brigade terrorist group.
But a spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas described the attack as a “new war crime”.
It was the second time that Israel has launched drone strikes in Jenin within two weeks as the Israeli army uses increased firepower to target Palestinian militants. Israel had not previously deployed armed drones in the West Bank since 2006.
The Palestinian Health Ministry said that in addition to the seven deaths on Monday, at least 40 people were injured.
The refugee camp in Jenin, a city in the northwest of the West Bank, is densely populated with about 14,000 people. News agencies reported that several drones could be seen flying overhead and gunfire and explosions could be heard.
This year is set to be the bloodiest year in the West Bank in more than a decade, amid fears that the escalation of violence could trigger a third intifada, or Palestinian uprising. According to UN figures, which do not include recent violence, Israeli forces have killed 114 Palestinians in the West Bank so far this year, while Palestinians have killed 16 Israelis in the territory.
Palestinians want the West Bank to be the center of a future state, but Israel has occupied the territory since 1967, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right government has sought to expand settlements across the territory since taking power in December. Planned.
Most of the international community regards the settlements as illegal.
Netanyahu’s government includes religious Zionist residents who want Israel to annex the West Bank and who are urging the military to take a more aggressive approach in the region.
There has been an increase in violence between Palestinians and Jewish residents in the West Bank as well as Israeli raids.
Two weeks earlier, hundreds of settlers torched Palestinian cars and homes as part of a series of surveillance attacks in the West Bank, which came after Palestinian gunmen killed four Israelis and injured four others in an attack near a settlement. Others were injured.
It was the deadliest attack against Israelis since a shooting in an East Jerusalem settlement in January, and Israeli forces killed seven Palestinians, including a 15-year-old child, and wounded more than 90 during their assault on Jenin. Was.
The Israeli attack resulted in several hours of gunfire, during which the Jewish state deployed helicopter gunships.
